User blog:WayfinderOwl/BTM: It's Tha Fifties Somewhere 9
The Nerds, The Drunk, and The Hotdog Spring came to Bullworth, and it was much welcome. Kids no longer weighed down by their thick coats. Having made the choice to quit Shop class, I made the switch to Home Ec. It was the only class left with free spaces. All High School and Middle School were combined into the same class. Pete was stoked that we had another class to go to together. I just felt like a dick for turning my back fully on the greasers. I walked into the classroom and found a hotdog stood in front of the class. The hotdog turned around, and I saw the face of a early thirties woman. She smiled at the sight of me. “You must be Joshua.” “Ur…” I muttered, hesitating in the doorway. “I’m looking for Home Ec.” “You’ve come to the right place. Sit, and let’s begin! My name is Mrs. Croft.” I sat beside a large girl with brown curly hair. I was surprised to see Trent at the back of the class, among a few other kids I’d never expect to see in Home Ec. Pete was at a work station near the window, sat with Sarah. I figured she would choose this class. “Josh, you have joined us at a wonderful time! We are just about to start on cookies.” She walked about the room giving each pair a recipe sheet. “Try as best as you can, but if you have any problems, I am more than happy to help.” Oddly enough, meeting a friendly hotdog who tried to teach me how to make cookies wasn’t the most weird thing to happen in my life. Mrs. Croft walked around the room, checking on various people. The girl beside me held out her hand. “Carol.” I shook her hand. “Josh.” “Ever done any baking before?” “Ur… does getting passively stoned, when my parents were into weed count?” Carol laughed. “I can tell already we are going to get along! You’ll do fine with me. I certainly know my way around a mixing bowl.” “Carol, what is with the hotdog?” I asked, pointing towards our teacher. “Mrs. Croft always dresses as a hotdog, when we get a new student join our class.” I decided I liked Mrs. Croft. The class was a disaster. I burnt my attempt at making cookies. They were as black as coal, and if I dared biting into one, it probably would be like eating coal. Carol was generous with the tray of golden biscuits, that had the whole class swarming around our work station to try some. The cookie I ate, if that was my last meal, I could die a happy kid. After class, I hung around for Pete. He was in a good mood, especially because everything had turned out alright for him. He had a girlfriend, he had his best friend back, and he was doing good in school. “I had a fantastic idea,” Pete said, the moment he laid eyes on me. “What is that?” I asked, still thinking about those cookies. “A comic book club. Just like a regular book club, except with comics.” I considered that for a moment. “Alright, I’m in.” Pete pulled twenty bucks out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Could you head into Bullworth Town and get some? I’ll get our dorm ready for the first meeting.” “Alright. I haven’t got anything better to do.” ^^^ I headed towards town on foot, enjoying the warm spring weather. Everything always was better in the spring anyway. Warm, but not too much. Cool, but not too cold. Just pleasant. I saw Johnny hanging out near the underpass to New Coventry. He was three sips into a bottle of whisky already. That won’t end well. “Hey Johnny,” I said, walking towards him. “Hey kid,” said Johnny, like a manic depressive with no hope. “What’s wrong?” I asked, even though I didn’t really want to know. “Norton. His followers. They split.” “So, you’re going to get drunk in the gutter?” I asked, bluntly. “Nah, kid. I’m gonna get drunk. Then wait. I do my best thinkin’ when I’m done with a hangover.” I decided to leave him to it. Greaser problems were no longer my concern. I could have stayed, tried to convince him not to get drunk. Johnny being the angry broken guy he is, was just going to get drunk anyway. No matter what I did. I headed to the comic book store. The place was empty. Not an empty shell of room. Everything was exactly how it should be, except the store owner wasn’t at the counter. The door down to the basement was open. Voices came from below. Thinking it was okay, I headed down the stairs to see if the store owner was there. “Hello,” I called. “There was no one at the counter…” At the bottom of the stairs, I found a sight stunning me to silence. How much I wanted to laugh in that moment was unreal. All the nerds—including Beatrice and the girl I met in Home Ec named Carol, stood around Fatty and Algie stood back to back. Only, they weren’t back to back by choice. Someone had tied their underwear together. They weren’t the only ones to have underwear related issues. Melvin wore possibly his own underwear like a tight necked poncho. My eye twitched, as I resisted the bubbling laughter. The store owner held a pair of scissors unsure where exactly to cut. Most of the nerds glared at me. To be fair, that was on me. I hadn’t exactly been nerd friendly since I got here. “I can help…” I said. “Just save us from this cruel twist of fate!” Melvin declared. I took the scissors from the store owner—whose name turned out to be Zack, and cut either side of the rather right knot and freed them both. Melvin had no choice but to go commando. His underwear was beyond saving. I just cut them off him and left him to deal with the tattered remains. “What are you doing here?” asked Earnest, eyeing me suspiciously. “Nothing,” I replied. “I came by for some comics, and that is all.” The nerds all exchanged looks, as if they were having some kind of telepathic conversation. At last, they gave in and spoke. “Some Jocks are in the alleyway,” Beatrice explained. “They want to kill us,” said Thad. “If you help us, we will pay for your comics,” Earnest offered. I nodded. “Alright.” I walked through the dark and heavily decorated basement, filled with enough G&G crap to bring the game to life. Opened the door and slowly headed out, closing it carefully behind me. There were only two Jocks; Ted Thompson and Damon West. By the sounds of it, Ted was telling a story. “So, this goth chick and this little snot of a kid, walked into this store. Robbed stuff, and… woah, dude, how long you been there?!” said Ted, not realizing I had walked up the stairs and casually stood beside him. “Don’t you remember?” I asked, playing dumb. Both Ted and Damon shot me a look implying what the hell?! “You called me over,” I said, making it up. “Wanted to tell me your story about some girl and a kid robbing a store. What happened next?” Ted scratched his head. His brow crinkled as he tried to figure out if my story was true or not. “I forget now…” he muttered. Both confused, and wondering what happened, they headed out the alley trying to figure out if I had been there or not. I returned to the nerds to claim my prize and got something even worse. “You are one of us now,” Earnest informed me, as if I had no say in the matter. That is not how I saw my day going. Category:Blog posts Category:WayfinderOwl's Fanfiction